by Beina Xu, DOW JONES
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People launch new firms for a variety of reasons, but for Gene Yoon and his small team at Bregal Sagemount, forming their own vehicle was the natural step after heading up a private equity group at Goldman Sachs & Co.
“If you’re in this business and don’t want to be a managing partner of your own fund, you’re probably not wired for this industry,” said Mr. Yoon, who founded Bregal Sagemount.
The fund, Bregal Sagemount I LP, has closed at $500 million, with the vast majority of the capital coming from Bregal Investments, the corporate investment business of Cofra Holding AG, a sixth-generation family holding company based in Switzerland. Bregal Investments has various platforms that invest directly in private equity as well as funds. The rest of the fund is general partner commitment – a single-digit, “industry standard” percentage, according to Mr. Yoon, who declined to discuss economics of the fund, saying it was a “very traditional” fund setup. The vehicle is a 10 year fund with a 5-year investment period.
Bregal Sagemount will invest between $15 million to $75 million in companies, and in partnership with Bregal Investments, can invest up to $150 million. Target growth investments will be in industries like business services, software and technology-enabled businesses, information and media, financial services and healthcare. Part of Bregal Sagemount’s strategy will include investing control and non-control positions, as well as junior debt.
“The market opportunity out there include many founder-backed companies that quite frankly aren’t seeking full liquidity events,” Mr. Yoon said. “They’re seeking capital for their specific purposes. In a market where we think having flexible capital is a differentiating advantage, having a single large LP provides flexibility in a sense that we can match what the marketplace is seeking from a deal perspective with an LP base that understands that.”
The fund has “specific buckets” for investing in credit, public companies and other securities.
Mr. Yoon was the head of private equity for Goldman’s Americas Special Situations Group, where he focused on middle market and growth equity investing. Prior to that he was a Partner at Great Hill Partners . He’s joined by Daniel Kim, also a former Goldman partner, and Philip Yates , who had been at Great Hill since 2003.
Mr. Yoon says that the firm is particularly interested in information services, data infrastructure, analytics, and “very pointed” vertical software solutions.
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Original post appeared at:
http://pevc.dowjones.com/Article?an=DJFLBO0020120606e866bxxzi
